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Spirit Of Progress

The 1937 Spirit of Progress bore little resemblance to its post-1962 namesake, apart from the colour scheme. The broad gauge Spirit was steam-hauled on its non-stop run from Melbourne to Albury, and it was then Australia's fastest and finest train. Notable was the round-ended Parlor Car with its large vase of fresh flowers at the rear. Alas, the four streamlined S class three-cylinder Pacifics were all scrapped by the centenary celebrations of Victorian Railways in1954. The original 1937 carriages were fitted with standard gauge bogies, and with some later saloon cars, operated the overnight sitting train from 1962. Below is a magnificent Victorian Railways publicity photo of the 1937 train, hauled by "Edward Henty".

The Southern Aurora Today

The carriages, and the departure time of the train existed in a run-down amalgamated form as the Sydney/Melbourne Express until 1992. It was then replaced by an XPT diesel-unit service, and the carriages were mostly sold. This occurred at about the same time as the Brisbane and North Coast Overnight Expresses were also replaced, and all NSW sleeping cars withdrawn.

The New South Wales Rail Transport Museum obtained a number of cars, and after overhauling them, has assembled a 13 car stainless steel train. This train, marketed under the Southern Aurora name, is used to operate day and extended trips over various lines in NSW ( and occasionally, into Victoria, as with the Easter 2000 10 day trip covering the Mallee lines, with extensive steam haulage in both states). The RTM train has one of the later FAM twinette sleepers, and a PHA power van: the rest of the train is genuine Aurora stock. For details of these operations, see http://www.nswrtm.org/tournews.htm

For some photos of the dining and lounge cars hauled by steam locomotives in March 2002, see: http://www.oocities.org/history117/steaming_south.htm

Another RMS dining car was sold to Victoria, and it is now operated by the West Coast Railway, see: http://www.railpage.org.au/swrs/rms2360.html

Publicity material from the collections of Tony McIlwain and John Lacey.

References:

Eric Adam, No Fear of Change ( ARHS, Redfern, 2001)

L.A. Clark, Passenger Cars of the NSWR ( Traction Publications, Canberra, 1972)

Railway Transportation, April 1962

Bulletin, December 1962

Rail News Victoria, May 2002